Written laws are like spiderwebs: they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.

I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.

Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

A real leader is somebody who can help us overcome the limitations of our own individual laziness and selfishness and weakness and fear and get us to do better, harder things than we can get ourselves to do on our own.

It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it can hold men’s hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction.

O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.

Whether for good or evil, it is sadly inevitable that all political leadership requires the artifices of theatrical illusion. In the politics of a democracy, the shortest distance between two points is often a crooked line.

The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.

People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.

You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.

In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.